Posted on 11/20/2008 5:10:10 PM PST by Coleus
Steak or salmon? Try Big Mac or Gordita. The high-end restaurant business is bracing itself for a slowdown as customers opt to save instead of spend.
That’s good news for fast-food chains like McDonald’s. In October, sales at the Golden Arches jumped 8.2% globally, thanks in part to their budget-friendly dollar menu. But how far can your dollar go when it comes to taste?
We asked Zach Brooks, editor of SeriousEatsNewYork.com and founder of MidtownLunch.com, to taste-test the best deals at five fast-food chains with outlets throughout the five boroughs, and dish on his findings.
KFC
“I love fried chicken. The food here seems the most like real food of any of the other places, but the meal deals are also the most expensive.”
Best deal: KFC Strip Snacker, with honey barbecue, $1.99, 270 calories
“The BBQ sauce is sugary sweet, but at least you feel like you’re eating real chicken. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the best fast-food chicken I’ve tasted is at KFC, but I would stick with the fried stuff.”
Zach's top pick: Toasted Wrap, $1.99, 340 calories
“Comparing this to the BBQ Snackers or Taco Bell tacos, I’d rather have the toasted wrap. It’s well seasoned and crunchy, and I can taste the salt and pepper. I felt like they might even have wrapped it and grilled it fresh, even though that’s a slight possibility.”
Skip this: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, $5.69, 520 calories
“Unlike the Caesar salad at McDonald’s, you won’t get Paul Newman-brand dressing here. The chicken chunks are decent, but it’s still not a real Caesar; it’s the same iceberg and processed cheese you find in other fast-food restaurants. You can get a better salad at any deli in the city.”
“The dollar menu wasn’t available in the restaurant I tested, but here you get everything for one price,” notes Zach of the fast-food megalith. “In a deli, for the price of a $6.50 McDonald’s meal, you wouldn’t get the fries and the soda thrown in.”
MCDONALD'S
Best deal: Honey Mustard Crispy Chicken Snack Wrap, $1.59, 330 calories
“The crispy snack wrap is reassuringly crunchy, but it’s not as well-seasoned as the fried chicken at KFC. The tortilla is pretty much the same as a Taco Bell tortilla. The grilled chicken is better than the grilled chicken at Taco Bell or Subway, but the barbecue sauce was an overwhelming flavor, which is fine if you love barbecue sauce.”
Zach's top pick: Southern Style Crispy Chicken Sandwich, $3.57, 550 calories
“Introduced a few months ago, this looks a lot like a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. It’s fried chicken with pickles and the roll is buttered. It’s a good mix, and with the 99-cent sweet tea, it’s perfect.”
Skip this: Angus, Mushroom and Swiss Third Pounder, $4.09, 720 to 860 calories “It’s salty and cheesy, but there’s a little too much bread. The bread is a little more dense than the usual McDonald’s buns.”
NATHAN'S
“It’s not going to replace the need for Coney Island, but it’s the only chain here that serves cheese fries. If you like frozen fries covered in fake nacho cheese, they’re delicious, but if I had my choice, I’d stick with the corn dog.”
Best deal: Hot Dog, $2.59, 297 calories
“The bread’s not that great, it tasted a little stale. But the hot dog is pretty good. They grill them, which always tastes better than boiling them. But the truth is, you can get one on any streetcorner for half the price.”
Zach's top pick: Corn Dog, $1.89, 380 calories
“This is definitely the reason to come to a Nathan’s. It’s cheaper than the hot dog, it tastes better, and it’s not something you can get in many places these days. You can’t fault anyone with putting a hot dog on a stick, dipping it in corn batter and deep-frying it.”
Skip this: Kenny Rogers Crispy Chicken Tenders Sandwich, $4, 706 calories
“It’s fried chicken, but you can tell the difference between this and the better-seasoned fried chicken at KFC. They use a Thousand Island kind of Russian dressing here, so it tastes a little different, but I don’t know why you’d go to Nathan’s to get fried chicken.”
TACO BELL
“It doesn’t hold a candle to real Mexican food, but the thing I like about Taco Bell is that their tortillas are good and they fresh-press their wraps. People think that things are less fattening than they really are because a calorie range is posted, instead of one value, but it’s almost impossible to order anything in the low end of the range once you start adding cheese and sauces.”
Best deal: Crunchy Chicken Taco $1.49, 150-270 calories
“The crispy taco shell is tasty, and the chicken tastes seasoned, plus Taco Bell is the only place you can get the sour cream and hot sauce.”
Zach's top pick: Chicken Gordita Supreme, $3.51, 290-350 calories
“Even if you don’t like Taco Bell, the Chicken Gordita Supreme doesn’t have any of the scary ground beef or refried beans that put a lot of people off. Nothing in here is fried. There’s nothing here that’s offensive, it’s just chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream. If you look at the low-fat menu, it follows the same principle.”
Skip this: Crunchy Ground Beef Taco, $1.49, 150-270 calories
“I’m not really a fan of the ground beef or the refried beans, it’s just really processed. You can tell that none of it was made fresh.”
SUBWAY
“If you want cheap and you want healthy, Subway is one of the best choices. The $5 foot-long is genius. It’s probably the most food for the least amount of money, and the bread is better than any of the other fast-food chains, but the more you add to it, the more you’re piling on the calories. Basically, the tastier it sounds, the more fattening it’s going to be.”
Best deal: Toasted Grilled Chicken Foot-Long Sub on Honey Wheat Bread, $5, 620 calories
“For people who think they like Subway and want to try a grilled-chicken sandwich, what we ate was terrible. It tastes and looks to me like fake reconstituted chicken. For a healthier choice, keep it simple with the roast beef or the turkey sliced deli meats.”
Zach's top pick: Toasted Meatball Marinara Foot-Long Sub on Italian Bread, $5, 1,720 calories
“What’s bad about bread with cheese and garlic on top? I like my bread soft, so this is good — it’s definitely better than the Taco Bell bread. You’d expect to pay $6 or $7 for real meatballs made fresh on the premises, so it’s cheap, too.
Skip this: Philly Cheese Steak Foot-Long Sub, $7.86, 1,040 calories
“The fat guy in me wants a Philly cheese steak sub, but it costs almost $8. Why would you get anything other than the $5 foot-long?”
I love their special sauce. Dang, I may have to run an errand up near my local INO tomorrow.
Fast Foodie Ping!
We need Hungarian Gypsy to come back from her vacation...We’ve stayed. OH, how we have strayed, LOL!
Speaking of salads...I LOVE to make my own.
My local grocer sells three nicely cleaned “heads” of Romaine lettuce for under $2.
One, chopped up, is enough for two salads...so that shows you how much you’re overpaying for that “salad in a bag.” OMG! I have to actually CHOP my own lettuce? Will this TRIAL I call my life NEVER end? *SMIRK*
Add whatever is on hand...croutons, craisins, a chopped hard-boiled egg. Some small, canned shrimp or crab. A sprinkling of (shelled) sunflower seed, etc.
BUT...there has to be Blue Cheese dressing on the side for dipping. No substitutions. :)
An old ‘Weight Watchers’ tip: Have a big-@ss salad, but the dressing is on the side. Take a forkful of salad, then dip the edge of it in the dressing. You get all of the flavor, but less of the fat.
And seriously, we all KNOW that salad is just the ‘gateway’ to the salad dressing; just like cigs are the ‘gateway’ to the nicotine and white soda (7-Up to you infidels) is the ‘gateway’ to the brandy, LOL!
I agree about Five Guys.
Good quality fast food, reminded me of a chain we had in Florida about 30 years ago called Burger Chef.
Um...can they be shipped overnight? I’ll freepmail you an address, LOL!
Being a newly diagnose diabetic now on daily insulin, it looks like I am going to starve to death.
I wish you could too. That sounds fantastic! Fries with garlic...mmmmmm.
In-N-Out rocks. Better than almost all casual dining chains for great burgers and fries. Their employees also seem to hustle and have some gray matter.
Worth a stop for a quick meal if you have never been there.
I are there once, I did a take-out lunch while at work. It was very tasty, but later on I felt as though I had eaten a boat anchor. Maybe it was the black beans on the burrito.
Mark
You said it all!
I LOVE their franks, and their fries (at a real Nathans, not these little "coves" they open at TCBY and other places) are amazing.
Mark
bttt
We had Burger Chef in Kansas City many decades ago too. I think Hardees bought them out. IIRC, a few years ago, the Hardees around here had a "Return of the Chef" burger promotion.
Mark
Love the onion bun...
Can't get them here fresh but the frozen ones are not bad.
Worst thing on any menu - the thing that passes for a fish sandwich at McDonalds. What is that thing made out of?
Had to get from Las Vegas to Travis Air Force Base one time...started at the location on Tropicana in Glitter Gulch (double-double animal style with unsweet ice tea)...got real hungry and ordered a 3X3 animal style (triple meat & cheese) in Kettleman City...and didn’t have to eat (it seemed) until I arrived back on the East Coast.
The location on Sepulveda Blvd. down from LAX and LA Air Force Base is burned in my memory...I can get there by the aroma itself!...and it is the first stop I make on the West Coast, when I get to LA.
Enjoy all of the “Quality You Can Taste” whenever you can!
“animal” is 4 pieces of beef also! Just the thought of their burgers makes my hubbie(saltnlemons) groan painfully
with memories,lol!
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